The Australian accent and language (which is apparently sometimes described as either broad or a drawl) is a useful tool for communicating complex ideas and sentences in as few words as possible. Often you can string various words together in a spoken sentence so that the meaning becomes far greater and deeper than the sum of the words themselves. I experienced the advantages of this communication method the other day.

On the northern end of Melbourne there is a retail shop which specialises in selling solar photovoltaic electrical gear. The guys that work in that shop look as though they’ve only just that morning taken a break from their forest encampment where they have been protesting against the harvesting of old growth forests for the past six months. They’re cool, and what is worse, they know they’re cool. And the shop is full of solar panels in various states of undress (i.e. being removed from their cardboard boxes!) all casually stacked against the walls. Shelves line the walls and are full of all sorts of casually stacked and inexplicable boxes of electronics gear. Did I mention that the green paint job on outside of the the brick shop looks very dodgy? And the large front window and security bars are covered by permanently closed aluminium venetian blinds dating from the 1960’s and are now so old and battered that they’ve achieved true vintage status. Yeah, they’re cool.

And then I walk into the shop. I’m not cool, but I’ve been dealing with these guys for years and so knew exactly what to expect. After the brief discussion with the two guys at the counter detailing my exact requirements, I shared a brief moment of acknowledgement and respect with one of the guys when he said the word: “Nice”. That is actually code word for a much larger idea which can actually be translated into proper English to mean: “Thank you for taking the time to understand and state your exact requirements and I respect your level of organisation.”

The rest of the conversation then followed the same path so it is worth recounting here with proper translations, of course:

Me: “How’s it goin’, mate” – English translation: “I’m concerned for your well-being as you appear to look rather unwell, my friend”.

Reply: “Mate, had a mates going away party last night” – English translation: “Thank you for your concern and I appreciate that. We have now bonded over this matter and I now consider you marginally better than an acquaintance. Last evening a friend of mine was leaving to pursue an adventure elsewhere and to that end our group of friends decided to have a party to celebrate the imminent departure. This party unfortunately continued into the early hours of the morning and so now I feel rather tired. To add to my personal distress, I imbibed rather more alcohol than my normal consumption patterns merely because that seemed to be appropriate given the circumstances. I am however a stoic individual, because this morning I am at work, although feeling rather unwell and so please forgive any and all mistakes”.

Me: “Cool (pause). Respect” – English translation: “I accept your explanation and totally respect and acknowledge your display of heroic stoicism. Further to that, I will endeavour to cross check your work to ensure that any embarrassing errors are corrected without the need to escalate the matter any further”.

It was fortunate for me that I was closely checking the order because he had forgotten to provide one of the components. And true to my word, I quietly let the guy know of the omission and everything was soon corrected and I was on my way home again.

So how did I come to be in the solar shop?

It all began a couple of days earlier when I had an epiphany. An epiphany is a moment of sudden and great revelation or realization. That epiphany gave me an insight into the world of solar photovoltaic power systems. That insight was that these solar power systems are so horrendously complex and are comprised of so many different components that no one actually knows how these things perform in the real world.

This week, for no real reason, I started feeling a bit anxious about the solar power system. It may be due to the fact that winter is just around the corner. I told you that I wasn’t cool!

After a deep breath (well, maybe a few deep breaths, and then some more deep breaths) and a bit of quiet reflection on the matter I applied my tried and tested approach of 'more is better' when dealing with natural systems. My approach can be summed up as: If you want to eat home grown apples, don’t just plant one apple tree, plant twenty apple trees.

Every year, I learn more about solar power systems. The frightening thing that I have learned recently is that every year single year that they are in operation, they degrade slightly. That means that every year the photovoltaic panels produce a little less power than the year before. Likewise the batteries store a little less electrical energy. Not to mention that some components corrode, whilst others fail. Even minor failures can be a nuisance, especially during the dark days either side of the winter solstice. So over the next few weeks I’ve decided to undertake a refurbishment of the solar power system using everything that I have learned over the past few years (and haven't had a chance to implement).

This week, I began construction of a steel pole mount for two additional freestanding solar panels. The construction work involved drilling and painting a scrap steel post. Over the next week or so depending on the weather it will be cemented into the paddock below the house.

I also realised that I had somehow completely forgotten to paint one of the existing steel freestanding solar panel mounts installed two years ago! This week, the steel, which was showing some signs of rust, received two coats of quality metal paint.

This week up in the mountain range, it was feral with tourists! I’ve never before seen so many people in the mountain range. It was mildly surreal. The tourists had driven up to see the autumn leaf colour change in the exotic deciduous trees. There were traffic jams on the main road and honestly, I’d never been so grateful to live on a scary dirt road before where tourists dare not come! It was also lovely to see the many couples enjoying the mountain and having their wedding photos in red or white dresses on the cold, but sunny autumn day underneath the falling foliage. The weather was almost perfect for them.

Observant readers will note that there don’t seem to be many vehicles parked on the road. That is because most of the vehicles were parked on side roads for hundreds of metres (feet). In the above photo both sides of the road are marked “no standing” zones and they don't need to be enforced. The reason that the parking zones don't need to be enforced is because many of the vehicles in the photo are parked on angles which are far less than horizontal. This is because on each side of the road, there are hugely deep “car swallowing” drains. Within only a few minutes I’d seen a Toyota Prius and a Jeep Cherokee both resting on their side doors at unfeasible angles after having slipped off the road. I was thinking to myself that recovery of those (and all of the other unlucky people) would be expensive for the drivers, but a lucrative business for the recovery trucks! Anyway, I left the area in case I was dragged into assisting with the recovery of some of those vehicles.

A few weeks back I mentioned that there was a mystery fruit which had grown here. Over the weekend the mystery fruit was harvested and cut in half. I can now report that the mystery fruit was a watermelon (although with yellow flesh). It was very tasty and the editor harvested seeds from the fruit for planting next year in more favourable conditions. Hopefully the melons will grow to an even larger size next summer.

For the rest of the entry click on: http://ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au/